Labor’s deportation bill shelved in Senate stand-off

Labor has shelved its controversial deportation bill a week after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese urged parliament to pass it, with the Senate now in a stand-off over the government’s plans to jail foreigners who resist efforts to remove them from the country.

The government pushed debate on the bill to the next parliamentary sitting in late June as Immigration Minister Andrew Giles faced off with the Coalition, which is calling for greater safeguards for those affected.

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles’ deportation bill has stalled in the Senate.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“Peter Dutton can come out today and say he will unconditionally support closing a loophole in our migration system that he left open,” Giles told this masthead.

“Or he can continue to stay silent – proving he will always put his political interest above the national interest.”

The bill threatens up to five years’ jail for non-citizens refusing to go back to their countries and bans entire nationalities from visiting Australia if their governments won’t accept citizens being returned against their will.

It is Labor’s third tranche of legislation in response to November’s High Court decision outlawing indefinite immigration detention, which triggered the release of 153 people into the community.

The opposition has accused the government of failing to explain why the bill was so urgent after Giles tried to ram it through both houses of parliament within two days in March. It was blocked by the Senate and referred to a parliamentary inquiry last month, where it was criticised by multicultural communities, the human rights watchdog, the ombudsman and former immigration officials.

The bill was introduced ahead of a High Court freedom bid by an Iranian detainee who the government said was being lawfully held and could be deported if he co-operated with efforts to remove him.

Home Affairs officials who developed the legislation told a Senate committee in March that it was not driven by the latest High Court challenge, but conceded it would arm the government with an extra tool if it lost the case.

Last Friday, Albanese urged the Senate to “get on with it” and pass the bill. Hours later, the government won the High Court case, allowing it to continue to detain the man and 199 others in similar circumstances.

While the bill was scheduled to be debated on Wednesday, it has since been removed from the Senate program, meaning it will not be brought on again until June 24, when the Senate next sits.

Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan said the government needed to answer “a very simple question”.

“Why did they say it was so urgent, and now they’re not even listing it for the Senate this week?” he said.

On Wednesday, the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Human Rights Law Centre, Greens senator David Shoebridge, North Sydney independent MP Kylea Tink, and two people affected by the proposed laws urged the government to drop the bill.

Piume Kanesan (front) urged the government to drop the bill.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Piume Kanesan, a 19-year-old Canberra nursing student who could be deported under the legislation, said it did not make sense for her and her family to be sent back to Sri Lanka, whose languages she did not speak, especially given Australia was in dire need of nurses.

“It would mean that the life I’ve been slowly building here ... since I was eight years old will be destroyed,” she said.

Queensland Zimbabwean community leader and academic Dr Wonder Chimonyo said he respected the intention of the bill in ensuring the integrity of the immigration system but wanted the government to consider the impact on families.

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